Electronic transducers have long been employed for sensing the depth of a body of water, and for locating schools of fish in the water. Fish-finder transducers are normally supported in the water slightly below the bottom of a boat, and have electronic leads running to a meter calibrated in feet or meters. Sophisticated brackets have been designed to mount a transducer to a boat, and certain of these brackets have included mechanisms by which the transducer or bracket can be deflected out of the way when a submerged obstacle such as a rock or a tree trunk is encountered when the boat is moving through the water. Brackets of this type have been exceedingly complex, and hence expensive, and ordinarily are permanently mounted to watercraft. Brackets of this type are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,729,162; 3,740,706; 3,752,431 and 2,837,727.
Such brackets are ordinarily expensive, involve sophisticated, articulated machinery, and often must be permanently attached to a watercraft. Such brackets hence are ordinarily unsuitable from the standpoint of expense, weight and complexity, for use with inexpensive rowboats, canoes and the like. Brackets of this type ordinarily also have moving parts and articulations, and hence must be handled with care to avoid damage. They often can be attached to and detached from watercraft only with some difficulty, thereby generally precluding their use with rental boats.
A simple and inexpensive transducer bracket, which has no articulations and hence is adapted for rough use, which can be attached to and detached from a boat with ease (e.g., with one hand), and which yet retains the ability to absorb shock when an underwater obstacle is encountered, is much to be desired.